SWEDISH FAKMINO. 127 



will be on a very different and far better footing than it now 

 stands. 



Before entering further into the subject, I can safely 

 say, although I know little of the country, that Norway 

 is far, very far behind Sweden in an agricultural point 

 of view ; and although there may be some fine valleys in 

 Norway, and I dare say some good land, I am quite certain 

 that I am right in recommending any man who means to 

 try farming in the north, to choose Sweden in preference to 

 Norway, although a description of the system of Swedish 

 farming in general will suffice for both countries. 



But however much Government may do, however much 

 a few private individuals may strive, to re-model the system 

 of agriculture in Sweden, the agricultural prospects of the 

 country can never flourish, until two monstrous evils are 

 remedied. 



First, until men of little or no capital, altogether renounce 

 the ruinous practice of buying farms on mere speculation, 

 raising probably two-thirds of the purchase-money on mort- 

 gage, at 6 per cent, interest, and entering on the land and 

 farming it themselves, without a shilling wherewith to im- 

 prove and work it. 



And secondly, until we see most of the farms in the 

 hands of a class of men on the same footing as the English 

 farmers, men of practice, not theory, who are dependent on 

 their farms alone for their subsistence, who have been 

 brought up to the plough from their childhood, and know 

 their business ; who enter their farms upon a certain length 

 of holding, with a proper capital in hand to do justice 

 to the land, and a practical knowledge as to how that 

 capital is to be employed. Then we may see agriculture 

 flourish in Sweden, and then, and not till then, shall we be 

 able to judge of its capabilities as an agricultural country. 



What would England be if the land were farmed by gen- 

 tlemen farmers, who had a very superficial knowledge of their 

 business, and little or no capital ? 



It was all very well for the editor of a little Carlstad 

 paper, when noticing a treatise on English farming, written 



